Lanugage: Passive Voice

The passive voice is used to describe things that are impersonal. For example, when describing a restaurant, a person says "they close at 10", referring to "they" because it is impersonal. Also, the passive voice is used wehn asking, "How do you say...?" This is passive voice because they are not literally asking how do YOU say it, but "how is it said" in general. There are two parts to passive voice:

1. Used with Ser

2. Used with Estar

Example:

SER

When using ser, the passive is always plural and the "lo" or "la" agrees with the subject.

-los coches los fabrican.     

Fabrican will be plural no matter what, and the "los" agrees with "coches"

- Ese tipo lo venden.

Again, the verb is always plural, and the "lo" agrees with the subject.

Another way to construct passive voice is with the use of SE

Example: 

-las puertas se cierran por la mañana.

unlike using lo/la, the subject will always agree with the verb.

se vende, se dice, se usa....